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Biochar Status Under International Law and Regulatory Issues for the Practical Application

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Biochar Status Under International Law and Regulatory Issues for the Practical Application 799 A publication of CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS The Italian Association VOL. 37, 2014 of Chemical Engineering www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Eliseo Ranzi, Katharina Kohse- Höinghaus Copyright © 2014, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., ISBN 978-88-95608-28-0; ISSN 2283-9216 DOI: 10.3303/CET1437134 Biochar Status Under International Law and Regulatory Issues for the Practical Application Ján Vereš*a,b, Jan Koloničnýa, Tadeáš Ochodeka a VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Energy Research Center, 17. listopadu 15/2172, 708 33 Ostrava – Poruba, Czech Republic b Institute of Geotechnics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 45, SK-043 53 Košice, Slovakia [email protected] Biochar is the carbon-rich product obtained by heating biomass in a closed system under limited supply of oxygen. Currently, there are several thermochemical technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, and hydrothermal conversion to produce biochar. Pyrolysis involves the heating of organic materials in the absence of oxygen to yield a series of bioproducts: biochar, bio-oil, and syngas. Biochar is a charred carbon-enriched material intended to be used as a soil amendment to sequester carbon and enhance soil quality. Addition of sustainable biochar to soil has many environmental and agricultural benefits, including waste reduction, energy production, carbon sequestration, water resource protection, and soil improvement. Therefore, the use of sustainable biochar as a soil amendment is an innovative and highly promising practice for sustainable agriculture. The prospect of global scale biochar application to soils highlights the importance of a sophisticated and rigorous certification procedure. We propose that a sustainability framework for biochar could be adapted from existing frameworks developer for bioenergy. Sustainable land use policies, combined with effective regulation of biochar production facilities and incentives for efficient utilization of energy, and improved knowledge of biochar impacts on ecosystem health and productivity could provide a strong framework for the development of a robust sustainable biochar industry. The objective of this work was to discuss the concept of integrating biochar properties with environmental factors and with sustainable biochar certification procedure. 1. Introduction Biochar is a fine-grained charcoal-like material, which is generated by heating biomass in air-deprived conditions called pyrolysis (Figure 1.). A feedstock for biochar production can be purpose-grown biomass as well as the residual material from forestry or agriculture. Chemical properties of carbon bound in the biomass are changed by the pyrolysis into a form which is more resistant to microbial decomposition in comparison with the original material. Such thermally transformed material has a mean residence time in soil up to several thousand years, which offers a potential method for carbon sequestration, since biochar decomposition into CO2 and other greenhouse gases is very slow (Lehmann, 2007). Biochar production and its application to soil, in addition to climate change mitigation, provide economic benefits in several other important areas such as waste management, energy production and soil improvement (De Filippis et al., 2013). As a waste management strategy, biochar can be produced from a variety of feedstock that would otherwise constitute a financial and environmental liability. Another value is the utilization of energy that is released during pyrolysis process. Production of biochar can be linked with local heat generation. The third benefit is improving the soil quality by enriching it with biochar. On soils with productivity constraints, it is possible to significantly increase crop yields. Losses of agrochemicals such as fertilizer nutrients, herbicides and pesticides can be mitigated by biochar’s ability to retain these compounds. Biochar improves several key soil properties (e.g. water retention in sandy soils, aerate and lighten clay soils) and is not only more stable and longer-acting than the original decaying organic matter, but also exhibits higher efficiency per unit of carbon added to soil. Measurement and verification of biochar Please cite this article as: Veres J., Kolonicny J., Ochodek T., 2014, Biochar status under international law and regulatory issues for the practical application, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 37, 799-804 DOI: 10.3303/CET1437134 800 sequestration is facilitated by the fact that the amount of added carbon can easily be calculated at any time and need not be measured continuously. Figure 1: Schematic diagram of biochar production (Woolf et al., 2010) 2. Possible uses of biochar Biochar is much too valuable for it to be just worked into the soil without having it used at least once for more beneficial purposes. Biochar is without doubt one of the decade’s most exciting fields of research, with findings and their practical implementation increasing exponentially from year to year. A shortly list highlighting the particular use of biochar in several fields with the latest research findings: • The cascaded use of biochar in animal farming (silage agent, slurry treatment, feed additive) • Use as a soil conditioner (carbon fertiliser, compost, plant protection) • Use in the building sector (insulation, air decontamination, humidity regulation) • Biogas production (biomass additive, biogas slurry treatment) • The treatment of waste water (active carbon filter, pre-rinsing additive) • The treatment of drinking water (micro filters) • Other uses (exhaust filters, carbon fibers, semiconductors, etc.) (Schmidt, 2012). To remove obstacles in the implementation of biochar systems, establishment of appropriate policies at national and international levels is required. It is also necessary to bring to life such mechanisms for carbon trading, which recognize carbon sequestration in soils (Zheng and Sharma, 2010). Biochar has the potential to make a major contribution to the mitigation of climate change, and enhancement of plant production. However, in order for biochar to fulfill this promise, the industry and regulating bodies must take steps to manage potential environmental threats and address negative perceptions. Sustainability certification could be introduced to provide confidence to consumers that sustainable practices have been employed along the production chain, particularly where biochar is traded internationally. 3. Biochar application under international law Biochar has implications in various EU policy areas, including environment protection, waste management, agricultural and climate change policy, etc. The main goal is to integrate benefits and impacts into a common framework, finding the most suitable and cost-effective solutions. The waste-to-energy technologies have become a keystone and are increasingly interesting as viewed from both an energy supply perspective and waste management (Peres et al., 2013). Chemicals are widely used in our daily life, almost everywhere and in everything. To control and protect human health from chemical exposures, regulators need scientific input regarding potential harmful impacts of the chemicals on the market and in the environment (Lee et al., 2013). Legislative requirements for commercial use of biochar are most often 801 associated with ensuring the safety, health and environment protection. The basic premise is the creation of a legal background that would provide these guarantees and would create general confidence in biochar as a useful product. 3.1 Biochar as waste material or production residue The task of legislation is primarily to introduce such measures and to define rules that ensure the highest standard of protection and make undesirable impacts on the environment as small as possible. Application of regulatory measures and restrictions is based on the intended use of biochar. Waste management issues should be considered first. Legislation in this area is relatively new, and although has undergone a great development in the last years, still it is not entirely systematic and comprehensive. The basic EU legislation governing this area is Waste Framework Directive (WFD), which sets the basic concepts and definitions related to waste management. Proper implementation, application and enforcement of EU waste legislation are among the key properties of EU environmental policy. The revised WFD introduces new provisions in order to boost waste prevention and recycling as part of the waste hierarchy and clarifies key concepts namely, the definitions of waste, recovery and disposal and lays down the appropriate procedures applicable to by-products and to waste that ceases to be waste (EC, 2008). Biochar is produced simultaneously with syngas in a reactor. The pyrolysis process is adapted to ensure that biochar will have the necessary technical quality. At the beginning of the process, technical decision was made in order to get desired type of biochar. The further use of biochar is certain in agriculture and gardening. Biochar can be used directly without processing, such as mixing with other substances, which is not an integral part of the manufacturing process. Under these circumstances, biochar should not be considered as a waste. The question of distinguishing between ‘waste’ and ‘product’ has been raised in particular in the framework of European Union law and the results of this process are undoubtedly of great importance for national decision-making bodies in all Member States. The problem involved mainly the distinction between waste and usable
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